1951 Hudson Hornet - Jay Leno's Garage

bail on hudson twin th power is root tour yeah fabulous episode of jail on his garage the car featuring today 1951 Hudson Hornet you know I'm a huge Hudson enthusiast and thanks the movie Cars Hudson's have become very popular again especially the young kids when I drive mine down the street they all go doc doc you know after Doc Hudson you know the character voice by Paul Newman in though is very popular films this car is interesting because it's owned by a man named davon bright dave is a automotive historian and he was one of the people that the filmmakers used to get all the facts correct on the Hudson he's a real Hudson expert this is his car in fact it was so pleased with the work he did Paul Newman even signed the visor which is really kind of cool cuz Paul Newman did not sign anything I knew Paul Newman he's a great guy he just didn't like to sign stuff it just wasn't his thing but he signed this so that shows you the importance of of Dave and this car well let's bring Dave in to talk about the car Dave how you doing good how are you doing thanks good to meet a fellow Hudson max yeah well thanks you Hudson's have become hot again you know for a while they were just kind of old cars at six cylinders and people didn't really appreciate how fast they were and how innovative they were 1951 they were the fastest American production car and they were also car of the year in 1951 and Hudson was the first company to sponsor stock car racing at that time that's right and Hudson's really handled because they have what they call step-down design as you can see the chassis it had a recessed floor which is what three or four inches lower than the frame yep exactly give it a lower center of gravity so they handle been in fact when you watch old stock car footage it's kind of cool because you see they might get the Hudson on the straightaway maybe a big v8 might take them but don't look into the corners the Hudson would would blow the doors they don't have the roll right so they had that low center of gravity and they had the streamlining because the roof was lower because of the recess floor pan let me shut this door and it really is aerodynamic isn't it very streamlined it looks like a very early out ett kind of everything old is new again you know and it's interesting because this is a shape that really holds up the test of time you look a lot of cars in the early 50s they look awkward and there's too much Chrome where is this is such a clean design their big mistake was they never had a v8 they should have made the v8 in 1954 actually that was the year that that Nash took him over in 54 but they should have made a v8 and they should have changed the styling because of the unibody construction it's more costly to do that so Ford Chevy Chrysler they could just put another body on their platform and be off and running so right they could change their styling every year but this basic styling was from like 1948 right right and across the twin h meant to one barrel carburetor to one barrel car big deal this in 1951 the original engine was a 145 horsepower and had a two-barrel carburetor you could get the twin 1851 at the dealer and that qualified Hudson to be able to run the twin H in 1951 and win the NASCAR championship which they won in nineteen fifty one fifty two fifty three and second 54 Wow so cuz everybody thinks of the rocket also real 88 is the first hot rod car but these were actually faster than them they were this was the fastest production American car I know it's funny and it was just short of a hundred miles an hour the Oldsmobile was like 96 miles an hour so it was a couple miles an hour faster you know it's funny I've mentioned this before I've got an old piece of tape I wish I could find it it's one of those reels they used to show with the dealerships you know to show to customers and it's silent with you the art cards mm-hmm and it shows a guy working on a ol Sabeel v8 and the customers going like this then mechanically but these overhead valves are so hard to adjust I'll try and get your car running as quickly as they can mr. Johnson he's going well I've got an appointment and then they pan over to the Hudson Hornet and the guy is just torquing the head like this and the customer is very pleased and none of the complication of those well that's one thing nice about a six-cylinder this particular car you change the spark plugs in 15 minutes yeah I know at oles 88 you're gonna be there for probably an hour hour and a half yeah let's open the hood and show people what we're talking about there she is well I love the twin h and this look how much extra hardware you carry with two giant oil bath air cleaners is this fabulous just such a cool looking thing but you know something when you open the hood of an Oldsmobile or Cadillac with that big v8 boy that was it that was it that was the selling point why do I get a 6 when you get a v8 for the same money and that's what really really hurt them but these were just fabulous see one thing about Hudson with it with the inline 6 over other flat heads even the Ford v8 is they had 2 cubic inches there were 300 8 cubic inches right and they had extra large intake and exhaust valve and intake and exhaust ports right they had a pretty hot camshaft and a little bit of compression in them and they like to say in this configuration it's a hundred and sixty horse and then in 1952 what they did as a dealer option also to qualify them to run a NASCAR they had what they call the 7x motor alright so what the 7x motor was was bored 20,000 sover it even had larger intake and exhaust valves it was factory relieved it had a hotter camshaft dual exhaust and it was rated at about 210 horse Wow see so where the Olson Bill was like a hundred and forty five at that time so they had a big horsepower advantage in 1952 I remember there was so many accessories available those in Clifford Clifford made a lot of stuff they made heads they would all command fools they've got everything and the twin age part of this thing like so in 51 was a dealer option and it was a whole $85 right that was a lot of money you know I guess so because gas was what twenty cents a gallon and what did this car sell for knew knew it sold for about seventy five cents a pound oh just like buying hamburgers right right it was between 25 and three thousand dollars so $85 option that was yeah that was a lot of money and it was priced in the range of a Olsen veal or Ford wise it would be bit comparable to a mercury between a mercury and a Lincoln Chrysler probably between a Chrysler Windsor and a Chrysler New Yorker sure sure yeah let's shut the hood again sure and it cost that big gun sight on them as plus a lot of people don't realize these had an interesting braking system he had hydraulic brakes with a mechanical backup koresh they do so if let's say your fluid ran out you would have a mechanical brake which mean you had a rod instead of fluid to correct stop you so it was almost like all cars have to have dual systems now back right that was a very primitive but effective yeah and they used cork in the clutches cork clutch which has oil in it and it the cork the oil expands the court keeps it tight on a disk and also keeps it cool but it gave a real nice soft start yeah and these were Torquay motives you know we in America custom the thinking of six cylinders is something less than a v8 but I mean there were six cylinders the the Jaguar any number of European ones that were more powerful envy ace but for some reason we've just because of General Motors and the Ford v8 we've come to think of that as the the ultimate where's this see these these had a lot of torque because they had a four 1/2 inch stroke yeah so got a lot going on there were like 275 pounds foot torque and this was a three-speed Drive three-speed standard yeah yep which state which they did make overdrive yeah and they did come with a hydro dual range hydra-matic most of the Hudson Hornets that were made were for doors right not coupes but the coupe is really the best one for the racing that's where a lot of them disappeared yeah wrecked and stuff and you had the post here for rigidity yeah yeah very nice I think it's just such a great-looking design let's so let's come around to the back of the vehicle so people can get a kind of 3/4 view here what we're talking about ok here we are at the rear of the car you know I kept thinking these would have been excellent for the moonshiners and the rumrunners because they handled so well you know what I we just did an episode for channels garage for the TV show about room running and stuff and they would take old Chevy's and fourth but Hudson was really the one because you had the handling plus you had the power and with a coupe he had the big trunk right take a look at that in a minute now the thing I love about these is if you're gonna restore one engine work pretty reasonable transmission chrome that's where you money oh my god there's somebody look at this this this is like five pounds of solid chrome right there I mean these are massive you know nowadays everything is plastic there's no Chrome I mean the over-riders everything look at just how much detail and chrome there is in this car and this is totally stock not custom in any way yeah it has a lot of chrome yet it's clean you know when you look at like a lot of the GM products and 50 they were pretty gaudy yeah just gaudy whereas this has a lot of chrome but for some reason it seems to work in this emblem is just classic the rocket is perfect let's show people what a real trunk looks like absolutely there you go all right you got a full-size spare no stupid inflator can here with a little rubber donut I mean it's really a good size trunk think about all kinds of stuff in here you put a lot of booze in there put a lot of booze in here that's correct just great cool now tell me about the lettering on the side they called them the who raced with the fabulous Hudson Hornet the lettering was put on from the for the Hudson factory that the first person to win the championship in 51 was marshal Teague right and his chief mechanic was smokey eunuch Wow yeah and there were other drivers herb Thomas Timmy flock and whatever but the factory back cars had the fabulous Hudson Hornet logo right on them and a good friend of mine who's deceased now painted all of this lettering on here and it's not vinyl it's painted just like it was in 1951 I believe the only company to use the word fabulous just you're right just a word you don't really hear a NASCAR no it just sounds funny and but it worked yeah I know it worked it really is because it's a fabulous car exactly and of course you had the fender skirts and right it's just so aerodynamic I would always be curious to know what the coefficient of drag is on this car I don't think they ever wind tunneled one back right but I mean I bet it would be pretty effective yeah because of the streamlining because of the step-down in fact you know and they could bring the roofline down which is only five five feet right when they race these did they race with an overdrive yes oh they did yeah so they could get 2 miles per hour gotcha gotcha yeah and the kind of Cathedral just beautiful that's beautiful let's let's show people the interior because I love the dashboard of these things it's so Wurlitzer look oh definitely let's come around here let's take a look at the interior here now obviously the upholstery has been redone during the original style and the fabric exactly my favorite thing is I'm guessing the dash has not been redone that's his original chrome everything original everything yeah yeah even Chrome the handbrake handle I mean we had to yeah just chromed everything but it's it's not gaudy it's not Wurlitzer looking it just looks classy it's all functional and my favorite thing about these cars is and we'll talk about two when we're driving it this is pre power steering pre power brake so everything is nicely weighted exactly you know you can feel it doesn't feel heavy but it feels firm you always know what the tires are doing that's why they had a large steering wheel yeah for the power steering part see I love feel like you're 7 years old sitting in your dad's lap driving this yeah and another favorite thing is look at this here let me bring the seat forward so you have a grab handle here for the person in the back and then you got these here to put magazines or whatever this you know whenever you went to the dealer they would have like cosmopolitan in New York let's have high-end magazines and one thing about this car and a lot of the cars in the 50s they did have a lot of ashtrays a lot of ash yeah these were smoking machines they were sitting everybody were smoking hot every passenger had a nationally really funny but you know they did a lavish job on the interiors I mean look they put the fabric in the door that was their own design yeah and leather and oh was this one I'm trying cuz they used to have a it looked like a woodgrain dash but it was they would dab it with it was dye it's it's like right here that's been dyed yeah but also guys like it's like ink or something dad with a sponge - I could give a woodgrain look even though always metal mm-hmm but yeah and this was like he said in the middle price field it wasn't the high end wasn't the low end Oldsmobile you a beauty you know mercury Lincoln yeah wasn't a cheap car by comparison say a 1951 Ford business coupe was about $1,700 and this was like 25 to 3 thousand depending on what options you got with it and Hudson was built in Detroit Detroit 1909 they started and it was really an offshoot of Hudson's department store yes it was yeah he was one of the financers of there was for engineers or executives that came from Oldsmobile and one of the executives was related to Hudson and that's how it all began and he financed the company so they named it Hudson after the department stores and explained the derivation of the triangle on the hood what does that symbol mean that I don't know but I guess because of World War two and and aircraft influences everybody had some sort of gun sight hood ornament mm-hmm you know I could very well be yeah yeah GM had the round would look like a like you yeah firing that makes sense yeah so well very cool can we can we take this thing for a ride absolutely do it okay let's hop in Hudson's always start right on the button don't they clutches a little you know the court clutch no the clutch is very progressive very nice now post my findings interesting besides being a Hudson guy you're a legendary machinist mechanic and you do a lot of Porsche stuff too right yes I do I started working on Volkswagens first and then kind of spun over into the Porsche thing and today I do a lot of poor cylinder heads and you do some of the historic ones you did the groom on coupe yeah very first first worker that won them all and 1951 I did the cylinder heads on it I did the crank case I did the the crankshaft and the connecting rod and you told me the crank case was dated 46 1946 yeah I believe that the Porsche didn't start selling cars till 49 but we think that the that he had an engine cool and that if they blew an engine up you know at a race or something or practice they just pull one out of another car stuff it in there and go they weren't care they didn't care about numbers matching cars then right right so that particular car that or that engine was dated 1946 so it's one of the oldest engines known that I just the fact that you know to trust you to do the work on it is the testament to your ability that I mean it doesn't get much more valuable in the groom on coop that was the first portion I would I would have to say that that particular car is priceless yeah I mean I don't know how you'd put a price on it at all and if somebody ever did buy it it probably would be the porch that fit let me ask you a question now we started in go-karts though two-stroke air-cooled Volkswagen air-cooled Porsche erekle work blotch in the Hudson it seems like the exact opposite well it's water cold it's a flathead it's not exotic I always wanted to build something different because everybody when I grew up as a kid yeah it was the muscle car right era and everybody had a GTO and everybody had a Corvette or no olds 442 or 396 Chevelle or something and so I thought well I just want to build something different but yet compete with them on the street right so I researched it out and I found out that Hudson made this big giant flathead six so I thought perfect so I bought a bunch in jet which was their compact alright that was a little had a small that had a little 202 cubic inch flat head without a 6 or 4 it was a cylinder I was 6 all day so I pulled the engine out it bought this rekt Hudson Hornet for a dollar from the friend directed and pulled the motor out of it overhauled it ported it relieved it built my own intake manifold put three carburetors on and exhaust system friend of mine built the the hydra-matic transmission for I locked out the rear end oh you're running a hydra-matic in yes it would run low for teens in the quarter-mile in the high 90 miles per hour hit short of 100 but I'd go street racing with it and I would race all these these GTO s and like say some Corvettes stock kikyo not a modified right and i would beat them and then then we pull over you know at the bowling alley or gas station and they'd go okay Dave I want to see that loaded 3.7 Chevy you got in that pile of junk your driver so I'd lift the hood up and they'd look at the they'd look at the engine and they'd go what the heck is that and I'd say it's a it's a Hudson flathead set and they were just totally got a flathead 6 well the doors closed the doors off let's say a stock that's very funny so and it was not a very good looking car it was but that's what I wanted I wanted a sleeper you know that's how he got involvement because banks like as I remember of my muscle car history the first transmission could really put power to the ground faster than the stick with the quark law was the torque flight right and the Hemi the idea that the Hemi dami torch light was faster than a manual transmission yeah he's unheard of back in the day so what made you go hydron well my my buddy get automatic transmission and he said okay Dave I'll make you a transmission that we can lock out with the dual ranked hydro well locked we can lock it out in every gear and we'll change the torque converter that means we can shift it manually rather than have it shift automatic run so it's kind of like a semi autumn there was semi stick right so anyway so I went with that it's a turf and it worked out perfectly and I had the 410 gear in the back and we didn't have positraction back then so we made our own by locking the rear end welding the spider gears up and that gave us both wheels driving but it wasn't so great around corners at all but it was a great combination for street racing for that quarter mark [Music] it is funny how a movie or TV show could just make a vehicle hugely popular well all the kids know everything about the Cars movie they know more about it than I do yeah yeah you know it's amazing and of course Paul Newman sign in that was pretty cool not tell me about that because I know Paul Newman and I knew him sorry and he you know he didn't like the sign stuff as I mentioned before what was the circumstances did you kind of quietly approach it how did you how did you get that to happen well we were we were down at the movie makers and few of us went down to San Jose when he was running the Indy car glassed IndyCar race which they won by the way so we were having lunch with him so we felt I thought well let's bring the visor down and see if he autograph it because he wasn't known to autograph anything right and so we took it down there had lunch with him and he was more than happy to yeah so how did you approach him because he knew he didn't like that kind of stuff how did you sneak it in the car I knew he was the voiceover for the movie right so he almost had to yeah I twisted his arm and he was and he did it so it's great no no he was a very nice man so good night he just didn't believe in autographs for some reason I never did ask him why but he just wasn't but Feeny was part of the voice and the character he was more than happy right and it wasn't like he wasn't a snob or anything like that just some reason thought it was stupid and why would anyone want a signature you know yeah yeah but no he was a very nice man because a lot of people don't do because they think you're above the person you know but that was never the case no not with him at all wonderful perfect it's amazing what a nice driving car these are you know they are I really nice they are you know I could drive well I use my Hudson mano my everyday car but they're very smooth you know they're great in the corners because of their low center of gravity yeah and they're just you know Lexie they made part of the year 1951 so they couldn't have been too bad like most cars of the period and this year when you went around a corner like that if you're going anything above the speed limit you just hear the tires you hear them just start to squeal a little bit less there goes you have rolled and then the role of the body right because the the other cars had their bodies mounted to the frame right and they had the Hat had that higher center of gravity oh these are real good driving part I bought my first Hudson back and I think 69 or 70 and I paid $400 for it my father thought that was just too lazy money there was a lot of us that was a lot of yeah for an old car but it was restored oh you know it was nicely done but still it was an old car yeah that was a lot of bother yeah yeah and it got stolen it got stolen and every day I went down to the police impound lot to see if it turned up and never did oh no no so then what happened was after about a month of going down every couple of days a cop pulled me aside he goes look Jakarta stated at the back row one of the guys here wants us to the South wants to buy it at the sale at the end of the month we felt so sorry for me he said you just go look around well if you just come across it by mistake and then I did I saw it sitting there and so that guy really helped me anyway after I got my Hudson back from the impound lot the guys have had it must have hold anything over Rev did there's any way to jump time you know the timing chain timing chain was off a tooth and it didn't right so I put it my it's in the fall and I went away to school thank him back in the spring I want to get this thing running so I got into the dash and the snake fell down on my face okay that was that okay and then went away again then I go back up weeks later I got into the dash and it's a bee hive and I got stung a little bit to get rid of that card the card is gonna kill you so definitely yeah I'm not sure what I've been doing I think I sold it with somebody pretty much what I paid for it which amazed my father if you have a lot of people coming to you looking for Hudsons because of the popularity of the movie yes it made a big difference in people looking for the cars yeah absolutely this car came from a gentleman in Arizona house a crock okay who had bought this car originated from a villa yeah yeah well you think that top-25 can hang yeah he was the hudson guy used to go to info fights all the time that's where i bought my husband oh yeah this really and he was one of those guys that was the guy from the day they went out of business forward yes you know yeah from 50 yeah before on a box leave Hudson went out in 57 right but when nash-kelvinator took them over everything from 15 5 6 & 7 were basically just rebadged Nash's right so they weren't really true Hudson yeah it's like like package number 507 you hit the same thing fabulous it's funny I whenever I meet guys that have Hudsons that doesn't seem to be a big thing about sticking some sort of Chevy v8 in it you know people have no compulsion about putting a Chevy v8 in the 32 Ford or 40 Ford or whatever whatever it might be but Hudson guys seem to like to stick to the original powertrain the fact I don't think I've ever seen a Hornet with a different engine and I'm sure that there's very few out there there's very few of it yeah you're right they like to stick with Hudson Hudson car Hudson engine cuts yeah and it's because it is what makes the car right you know the twin th it sounds so powerful but tell me don't like 2 1 barrel carburetors yeah in the carburetor it looks like it would go on and briggs and stratton longoria anybody ever run one of these with Weber's or anything I guess oh yeah Jack Clifford made a lot of the speed equipment you know he made a high compression head different camshafts and he they made a intake manifold that could put three side draft o45 dcoa Weber's on Wow that made quite a package then he got proper win wings here so you can get some real ventilation that's the first air conditioning yeah what that is you have it on high now yeah I got it on huh cut the air conditioner on high well didn't Hudson have the weather I was that Hudson or was that part of nash i beliee - had the weather our that's right yeah yeah which Hudson became part of 1855 so they probably had the weather I in the fifty five six and seven yeah the only car company to use the word fabulous fabulous I didn't realize that was a factory I thought that was you know a racer input done on the factory wanted that on their cars and I don't know who who who that was it might have been Vincent arrogance came out of that bail on hudson twin hpower here is root tour yeah and des Vosges knew your legendary machinist and engine builder but thanks for being a great historian too you know you got to write a book you got to write these stories down because they're fascinating you know and when we go there's nobody to pass them on well thanks for having me Jay it's been a wonderful time and I'm glad you enjoyed the car well no and thanks for being a real car guy you get it you bet even the Hudson Hornet alive the fabulous has the fabulous Hudson Hornet [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 2,171,330

Keywords: Jay, Lenos, Garage, Cars, Doc Hudson, Paul Newman, Hudson Hornet, stock car, NASCAR, unibody, Twin H Power, inline 6 cylinder, movie cars, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: hPoIb3zTGcA

Length: 31min 39sec (1899 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 15 2018